Ronnie O'Sullivan escaped unscathed from a car crash as he travelled home from defeat in the world championship final. The five-times world champion and his six-year-old son, Ronnie Jr, were travelling in a two-seater Audi R8 sports car when it spun out of control on the M1 near Leicester at around 1.30am.

A police spokeswoman said: "We would not identify those involved in a road traffic collision but we did have a crash on the M1 southbound at about 1.30 in the morning. There was an adult and a child in that vehicle."

The car reportedly hit a pool of standing water before smashing into the central reservation as O'Sullivan and his son travelled home to Chigwell in Essex.

Weather conditions are thought to have been poor as they drove near Selby's hometown of Leicester but a source told the Daily Mirror that speed was not a factor in the accident.